Lin Biao is famous for not liking to socialize. Both superiors and subordinates of our army are accustomed to calling each other comrades. However, Lin Biao never refused to do this, and he just called him his name. Lin Biao never likes to have any personal relationships with his subordinates. After reporting on the situation, he refused to even leave food for his subordinates. However, in August 1950, Lin Biao invited a guest in his residence for the first time.
However, the Lin family’s meals are not something you can eat casually. At the dinner table, Lin Biao issued an emergency order to his old subordinate Hong Xuezhi, who almost made Hong Xuezhi jump up: "How can I explain to Ye Shenzhan?" The Ye Shenzhan here is naturally Ye Jianying.
So why did Lin Biao treat him and what kind of order did he give to Hong Xuezhi?
1. Deng Hua recommends Hong Xuezhi to Lin Biao
On June 25, 1950, Korean War broke out. Two days later, US President Truman decided to interfere with armed forces and sent Seventh Fleet to invade Taiwan Strait . On July 7, UN Security Council passed a resolution, and the " UN Army " dominated by the US military entered North Korea.
The strategic situation suddenly changed, and the new China had to temporarily give up attacking Taiwan, but instead focused on the Northeast and its adjacent Korean Peninsula. After all, North Korea is unstable, so the Northeast will not be stable. At that time, the Northeast was the most developed industrial region in my country and its status was extremely important.
Under Mao Zedong's resolution, Lin Biao organized the 38th Army, 39th Army of the Fourth Field Army, 40 Army, which had just completed the Hainan Island mission, and 250,000 people including the 42nd Army in the Northeast, formed the Northeast Frontier Defense Force and established the new 13th Corps.
According to the previous settings, the 13th Corps should be led by Huang Yongsheng, who has outstanding military achievements. But considering that this expedition may be a war abroad, a commander with more comprehensive military and political capabilities is needed. In Lin Biao's view, Deng Hua from the 15th Corps is an excellent candidate. A few months ago, Deng Hua had just crossed the Qiongzhou Strait with his partner Han Xianchu and liberated Hainan Island. Such unexpected results made Lin Biao overjoyed and became more optimistic about Deng Hua and Han Xianchu.
From the perspective of military talents and military achievements, Deng Hua and Huang Yongsheng are comparable. But from the perspective of comprehensive abilities, Huang Yongsheng is still inferior to Deng Hua. Therefore, Lin Biao and Luo Ronghuan jointly proposed to the Central Military Commission to transfer Deng Hua, commander of the 15th Corps, and Huang Yongsheng, acting commander of the 13th Corps. It was led by Deng Hua to the Northeast and was renamed the 13th Corps. The 13th Corps headquarters went to Guangzhou and was changed to the 15th Corps headquarters, and ordered Han Xianchu, deputy commander of the 12th Corps, to be transferred to serve as deputy commander of the 13th Corps. Lin Biao's move is to allow Deng Hua and Han Xianchu, the golden partners, to continue to the forefront and to show their steadily and bravely to the extreme.
After Deng Hua received the order, he rushed to the location of Lin Biao Command. Deng Hua saw Lin Biao had a special purpose during this trip, which was to find the commander-in-chief of the Fourth Field Army to ask for some people.
After meeting Lin Biao, Deng Hua proposed to transfer Xie Fang, the chief of staff of the 12th Corps to the 13th Corps as chief of staff. In the battle to liberate Hainan Island in , issues such as troops dispatch and tactics were handled by the Jiefang. graduated from Japanese Army Non-commissioned Officer School , Xie Fang is resourceful and knowledgeable in many languages, and is a rare talent. Soon, Lin Biao agreed.
However, Deng Hua was not satisfied, "to get more and more talented", and wanted to dig up his old friend, Hong Xuezhi. As a meritorious general, Hong Xuezhi, a poor family, was promoted from a platoon leader and company commander to a corps-level cadre, and made countless military achievements for the People's Army. As a great man said, "He grew from a warrior to a general."
In the battle, Hong Xuezhi was very brave and survived many times of injury. In the Sujiabu Battle in in 1932, Hong Xuezhi, who had just been promoted to company commander, suffered a fatal injury. During the charge, Hong Xuezhi's chest was penetrated by the enemy's bullet. Later, Hong Xuezhi told the military reporter: "The gun was just covered by a tendon in the vest." Later, the captured Kuomintang military doctor fed Hong Xuezhi three imported medicines, which saved Hong Xuezhi.Therefore, Hong Xuezhi survived many disasters and was therefore called "Blessing General" by his comrades.
Not only that, Hong Xuezhi is also very capable of uniting his comrades. He is kind, lukewarm, broad-minded, and can bend and stretch. When he spoke, he often touched his chin with his right hand, which was common words, slang, jokes, and ridicule. He spoke and often made his comrades fall back and forth.
The old Red Army Pan Xingcheng also recalled that Hong Xuezhi had already shown amazing ability to pay attention to the situation before he took office. One day after the liberation of Guangzhou, Hong Xuezhi went to a certain department to inspect equipment and suddenly saw someone missing a horse. So he asked, "Where is your horse?" The other party replied, "Did you die of illness?"
If it were someone else, he might have just skipped it. However, Hong Xuezhi asked further, "Where is the horse's skin?" The man stammered, "Sold." Hong asked again, "How much did it cost?" He replied, "Fifty yuan." The general said, "No matter how much it costs, it must be handed over to the public." Someone had to hand over the privately hidden 50 yuan to the financial department.
This meticulous and thoughtful personality is exactly what Deng Hua needs. Lin Biao also knows Hong Xuezhi quite well. Before attacking Jinzhou , he also listened to Hong Xuezhi's war chess deduction , and finally strengthened his determination to attack Jinzhou.
In the previous 15th Corps, Hong Xuezhi had been serving as deputy commander and chief of staff. Since Han Xianchu was transferred to the Northeast, Hong Xuezhi stayed in Guangzhou and became an important assistant to Ye Jianying, who was in charge of Lingnan. Ye Jianying handed over the specific work of Guangzhou Military Region to Hong Xuezhi, so Deng Hua was a little afraid that Ye Jianying would not let him go, so he had to find Lin Biao for help.
Lin Biao's request to Deng Hua has always been "following his words", so he naturally has no objection. So Lin Biao and Deng Hua decided to give Hong Xuezhi a "Hongmen Banquet" and dig him from Ye Shen's post.
htmlAugust 19th, the opportunity came as soon as possible.2. Grant the order on the dining table
August 19, Hong Xuezhi, on the order of Ye Jianying, went to Military Commission to report on the merger of Guangdong Military Region and the 15th Corps. That morning, Hong Xuezhi got off at the Beijing Railway Station where the heat was steaming.
As soon as he breathed the fresh air, he heard a familiar Hunan accent: "Brother! Brother!" Hong Xuezhi looked closely and found that it was his old comrade-in-arms Deng Hua.
When Hong Xuezhi saw Deng Hua, he was puzzled: "Buddha, have you gone to the Northeast? Why are you still procrastinating in Beijing?" Deng Hua said: "I have been in the Military Commission meeting, but haven't been there yet?"
So Hong Xuezhi asked Deng Hua in confusion again: "What are you doing at the railway station? Who are you picking up?" Deng Hua said mysteriously: "Of course I picked you up!" Then Deng Hua pointed to a brand new beauty behind him. Then Deng Hua pointed to a brand new beauty behind him. jeep: "Brother came in just the right time, it came in very timely! Get on the bus quickly, Mr. Lin will talk to you."
Hong Xuezhi looked surprised: "Mr. Lin talks to me? What are you talking about? I'm sweating now, always ask me to take a shower and see the boss again?"
In this way, Hong Xuezhi was "escorted" to the jeep by Deng Hua, and then galloped towards Lin Biao's residence. Along the way, Hong Xuezhi was asking, "How did you know that I went to Beijing today?" But Deng Hua both pushed and smiled, refusing to answer.
When he arrived at the Lin family, Lin Biao was lying on a sofa and closed his eyes to rest. He opened his eyes, glanced at the two generals, then supported his hands back and stood up. Lin Biao didn't say much and said to the two generals who saluted him, "Okay, you guys come! Very good! You have to have a meal first."
After Lin Biao finished speaking, he brought the two generals to the dining room. The table was already filled with rice and a few dishes. Lin Biao has always been a habit of treating guests.
During the meal, Lin Biao first talked about tactics, such as "one point and two sides", " three-three system ", "four fast and one slow", etc. At the same time, he also said that when you two went to the front, you must emphasize faith and style, and believe in Chairman Mao’s strategy and tactics, and said: “The hard truth to go to the front is to win the battle.”
Hong Xuezhi was very confused while raising rice in his mouth.It was Deng Hua who was going to the front line, so why did he tell me this? At this moment, Lin Biao put down the bowls and chopsticks and said to Hong Xuezhi solemnly:
"Hong Xuezhi, go to the northeast border with Deng Hua in the afternoon. The Military Commission has decided."
Hong Xuezhi almost jumped up when he heard this emergency order:
"Why did I explain to Ye Shenzhan?" "I am here to report the merger of the Corps and the Guangdong Military Region."
But Lin Biao said without saying anything: "Leave the matter to other comrades. You have lunch and leave!"
Hong Xuezhi said again: "What role can I go?"
Lin Biao replied: "Let you go, you want you to play a role. Today Deng Hua is going to North Korea to learn about the combat situation. The 13th Corps is already in Yalu Jiang is released. As soon as Deng Hua left, many of the work was left unattended. These troops are all familiar with and are several old troops from the Fourth Field Army. So you should hurry to the Northeast to command and manage the troops. You left after lunch today. After buying the train, you will leave immediately. "
Hong Xuezhi was anxious: "I am a Communist Party member. If the organization needs me, I will obey the order. But what should I do if the order given to me by Ye Shenzu? Should I go back and report and then go to the Northeast?"
Lin Biao said: "No, it's too late. The situation in the Korean War is very tense now, and the task of strengthening the Northeast border defense is very urgent. Commander Ye has assigned you the task, call or write a letter to tell him, and ask him to choose another person to take over your work."
After dinner, Hong Xuezhi called Ye Jianying. Ye Jianying said with concern: "What's going on? Did you ask?" Hong Xuezhi said: "No, it seems that the Central Military Commission has studied it a long time ago." Ye Jianying thought for a while and said: "Since the Military Commission has made a decision, then you can go!"
Although Ye Jianying cannot do without Hong Xuezhi at this time, he must also let him go for the overall situation of resisting U.S. aggressing Korea and aiding Korea. However, before hanging up the phone, Ye Jianying still said humorously:
"If I had known this, I would not have let you go to Beijing."
After Hong Xuezhi called Ye Jianying, Lin Biao immediately dictated the letter to Nie Rongzhen:
"Mr. Nie, I have discussed with Comrade Tan Zheng on the phone today. He has no objection to Hong Xuezhi going to the Northeast. As long as Hong himself agrees, he will do it. Hong Xuezhi agreed to go to the Northeast to serve as deputy commander of the 13th Corps, and followed Deng Hua to the Northeast for a meeting this evening. Now the Military Commission must be asked to appoint Hong Xuezhi as the first deputy commander of the 13th Corps, and Fang Qiang will replace Hong Xuezhi as the deputy commander of the Guangdong Military Region and the commander of the Guangdong Jiang Defense. This appointment is requested by the Military Commission Office to issue the appointment. "
It can be said that Lin Biao's move is to "get on the train first, then buy tickets." Lin Biao's appointment of Hong Xuezhi was as clean and neat as he fought in the war back then.
3. Hong Xuezhi shines brightly in North Korea
Although Hong Xuezhi was "hardly dragged" by Lin Biao and Deng Hua to North Korea. However, at work, Hong Xuezhi is not vague at all. After Peng Dehuai led hundreds of thousands of volunteers to the North Korea, in order to facilitate command, he directly used the 13th Corps Command as the Volunteer Army Command, Deng Hua and Hong Xuezhi as the deputy commanders of the Volunteer Army, Jie Fang as the chief of staff of the Volunteer Army, and Du Ping as the director of the Political Department.
At that time, the telegrams sent by Mao Zedong to the Volunteer Army were mostly "Peng Deng Hong Jie Du". Hong Xuezhi, as the "Hong" among them, played an irreplaceable role.
Peng Dehuai has a hot personality and often opens a "hair dryer" in the headquarters. However, only when Hong Xuezhi spoke, he immediately "stopped the fire". Therefore, whenever something difficult is encountered, Deng Hua and others will ask Hong Xuezhi to come forward and mediate with General Peng.
At the same time, Peng Dehuai has always put life and death aside and refused to hide when encountering US air strikes. However, Hong Xuezhi never said anything and dragged Peng Dehuai into the air raid shelter. President Peng said angrily, "You don't need to care about my air defense." Hong Xuezhi said wisely, "Boss, it's the Central Committee that I asked me to take charge, the Central Committee has orders!" President Peng was speechless after hearing this.
In the specific operations, Hong Xuezhi is mainly in charge of the headquarters, special forces , and logistics work, and directly participates in command of the operations. However, as the front line continued to lengthen, Peng Dehuai gradually discovered an unprecedented problem, that is, the logistics issue.
In previous operations, our army's logistics rely on the capture and the support of the people, and we can barely ensure that the food and ammunition are not in danger. But in North Korea, both of our army's magic weapons have lost their effect.
First of all, the US military is mechanized force , which has all the air advantage. It is difficult to attack quickly and retreat quickly, so it is difficult to fight an annihilation battle in an established system, so the capture is very limited. Not only that, even if there is a limited seizure, the wealthy Americans will not let you succeed easily. Before retreating, the United States will burn all the materials and weapons that cannot be taken away; before it can burn it, it will summon planes or even naval guns to destroy them.
Secondly, our army is fighting in foreign countries and is not familiar with the local conditions and people, so it is difficult to replenish local supplies. Besides, due to the indiscriminate bombing of the US military, the North Korean people have long been displaced and have no time to take care of themselves. How can they still have the spare time to support the volunteer army?
Therefore, our army's grain and ammunition supply must be transported from the rear. However, because the Soviet Union refused to send air force to cover, US planes were rampant over our army, and most of the 2,000 cars responsible for transporting supplies were blown up within a month. This led to a shortage of supplies from our army, so we could only use inferior weapons, wear thin cotton coats, eat fried noodles and snow, and fight bloody battles with the US military armed to the teeth.
From the first to the third battle, our army overcomes all difficulties and pushes it from the Yalu River to Seoul. However, due to the lengthening of the front line, the supply problem of our army is becoming more and more serious. During the Fourth Battle, Peng Dehuai left his command work and returned to Beijing specifically. In order to make up for supplies, Peng Dehuai even got furious and slapped the table in front of Zhou Enlai.
After returning to the North Korean front, Peng Dehuai knew that it would be absolutely impossible to ignore logistics like before. So after the fifth battle was launched, Peng Dehuai finally made up his mind to promote Hong Xuezhi to the logistics commander of the Volunteer Army.
Hong Xuezhi did not do this task at the beginning. Like many New China generals, Hong Xuezhi likes to fight on the front line and is unwilling to do the logistics work of "mother-in-law and mother". He even has the idea that doing logistics is "not to fight".
Hong Xuezhi shirked several times, hoping that others would do it. However, Peng Dehuai was unhappy. He slapped the table and said:
"Then I will do it, you go and command the battle."
Seeing General Peng get angry, Hong Xuezhi finally decided to take the overall situation into consideration and agreed to the rear as the logistics commander. This is a milestone scene in the history of our army, which marks the official normalization of the People's Army. Later developments also proved that Peng Dehuai saw the right person.
After the fifth battle, the Korean War entered a stalemate stage. Li Qiwei launched the so-called "strangation war", which means that the air force with its superiority bombed our army's supply line, hoping that our army would starve and freeze to death.
Hong Xuezhi came to block the water and cover the soil. He led the Volunteer Army Engineers and the rear to rest and recuperate the troops day and night, widened and reinforced the roads, built hundreds of kilometers of roads, and built many underwater bridges and car hidden places along the way. An air defense sentry was set up along the way, and enemy planes immediately fired guns and fired signal flares as soon as they arrived. When the vehicle heard this, it turned off the lights and drove. When the car driver was fired by an enemy plane, he hid and lit the broken oil barrels that had been prepared near the car and used as a burning car to confuse the enemy plane.
As a result, the loss rate of our military cars has been greatly reduced. Quarterly car losses dropped from nearly 50% in the early days of North Korea to 20.3% in the first quarter of 1952. The road transport capacity from September to December 1951 increased by 95% compared with April to August.
Not only that, the work efficiency of our military engineers has also been greatly improved. The bridge and railway were just bombed during the day and can be repaired at night. The strong emergency repair capabilities of the Volunteer Railway Corps made the US Air Force admire: "The speed of the Chinese army's emergency repair and filling bomb craters can be compared with the bombing speed of the F86 pilots."
Under the support of Hong Xuezhi, our front-line soldiers were full, warmly dressed, and had endless ammunition. Our army is getting stronger and stronger, the offensive is becoming more and more proactive, and the front line is moving southward. Logistics is the foundation of combat effectiveness, and logistics commander Hong Xuezhi completed his task more than he could.
On October 25, 1951, the North Korean government decided to award Peng Dehuai the medal to commemorate the first anniversary of the Volunteer Army's entry into North Korea.However, Peng Dehuai said that this medal should be given to Hong Xuezhi.
After returning to China, Hong Xuezhi took office as the General Logistics Minister. During his tenure, he did not play cards, chess, did not drink or watch operas, but only regarded work as his hobby and did not rest even on Sundays. Based on the theory of nutrition , he proposed the food standard of "half pounds and four liang" to ensure that each soldier can eat one and a half pounds of vegetables and one and a two liang of meat, one and a two liang of poultry, fish and eggs, one and a two liang of soy products, and one and a two liang of animal and vegetable oils a day, fully ensuring the nutritional needs of the soldiers.
In 1984, Hong Xuezhi was invited to visit the United States. The lieutenant general in charge of logistics in the US military asked the chief, which school did you graduate from? The general said humorously, "I graduated from your aviation headquarters." Then, he said, "By the way, you haven't sent me a diploma yet!" The general's words made everyone present laugh.
In 1955, Hong Xuezhi was awarded the rank of general. By 1988, when the military rank system was restored, Hong Xuezhi was once again awarded the rank of general. Hong Xuezhi was awarded the rank of generals twice, which is the only time in the history of our army, and it is also rare abroad. Someone once asked Hong Xuezhi about his opinion on this matter, and the leader just said indifferently:
"A person's life fame and fortune are not important. What matters is what he has made for the country. What good things have he made to the people and what good things he has done."
Hong Xuezhi practiced the motto of serving the people throughout his life. Chairman Mao did not read the wrong person, Mr. Peng did not read the wrong person, and Lin Biao did not read the wrong person.
